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(No Model.) n

G. W. HADLEY. SPROGKET CHAIN.

No. 558,277. l Patented Apr. 14, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE NV. HADLEY, OF OHIOOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE LAMB MANUFAOTURINGCOMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

SPROCKET-CHAIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 558,277, dated April 14, 1896.

Application tiled October 23, 1895. SerialNo. 566,596. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. HADLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicopee, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sprocket- Chains; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

An object of this invention is to produce a high-grade sprocket-chain that shall combine lightness, strength, simplicity of construction, and uniform flexibility; and a further object is to produce a chain that shall be selflubricating and readily kept dry or free from oil externally and that shall, therefore, be cleaner than those heretofore in use. To these ends the cross-pins or rivets are shouldered to receive the link side bars and their projecting ends are spread, spun, or swaged down upon the surrounding external surfaces of the latter to retain them in position. Such construction in itself produces a chain havingnovel advantages, such as those first above suggested; but to add the desirable features connected with lubrication the rivets may be made wholly or partially tubular and provided with lateral perforations to allow oil to pass to the principal bearing-surfaces, and for more perfect attainment of the desired ends tubular rivets may be filled with oil-retaining material.

The chain, which is of the common general type, is fully shown in the accompanying drawings, the forms illustrated being such as involve all the novel features above set forth.

Figure l shows oneof the broader faces of a portion of the chain. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the same portion. Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3 3, Fig. l. Fig. eis a section on the line lc-4, Fig. l. Fig. 5 shows a slightly-different form of rivet.

The chain is made up ofa series of duplicate unit structures, each of which consists of three, and but three, different components, or four pieces in all--a center block A, side bars B B, and a rivet C. The side bars are arranged in slightly-separated pairs connected by center blocks whose ends lie, respectively, between the ends of adjacent paired members, and a rivet is passed through the ends of those members and the interposed center block. The rivets have a cylindrical central portion D of a length equal to the width of the center blocks and smaller end portions E normally of a length somewhat greater than the thickness of the side bars. The central and end portions accurately fit, respectively, holes drilled in the center block and side bars, and the latter rest against shoulders due to the difference in diameter between the central and end portions.

The parts being assembled in the relative positions shown in the drawings the projecting ends of the rivets are spread outward from the center without upsetting the rivets and spun or swaged down upon the surrounding outer surfaces of the side bars and finished in the form of a spherical segment having an external central cavity. The side bars are thus held between the shoulders and the spread, spun, or swaged iianges precisely as they would be by an ordinary nut and are subjected to none of the splitting strain of the ordinary riveting. Moreover, if the central portion of the rivet be made equal to the width of the central block any length of the chain may be riveted up without producing binding or stiffness of the chain at any point, a result not practically attainable with the ordinary rivet.

As shown in Fig. 4, the rivet is drilled axially from one end nearly, but not quite, to the opposite end, and is laterally perforated in one or more places G to allow oil to pass from the axial cavity to the contact-surfaces of the rivet and center block, where in use nearly all the wear occurs. Preferably this cavity is filled with waste or other absorbent material F, and if this be soaked with oil of good quality the chain will be self-lubricating for long periods. Owing to the peculiar rivets the central blocks may be equal in width to the distance between the shoulders, as has been stated, and hence the side bars and center blocks, if accurately made, may be in actual contact, so that no dust enters and little oil exudes. If a cloth or the like be rubbed over the open ends of the rivets from time to time to remove any oil that may IOO be found there, the chain may be kept dry or externally free from oil, and hence `clean to an extraordinary degree, a matter, as every wheelrnan knows, of some moment.

in lightness a slight advantage over the other form shown as the latter has over one without the axial cavities.

What I claim isl 1. The combination with the transverselyperforated center block, of the rivet fitting the perforation in the block and having its end portions diminished to form a shoulder at each side of `the block, and the side bars perforated to iit over said diminishedend portions, respectively; the slightly-projecting end portions of the rivets being bent outward in all directions upon the surrounding outer surfaces of the side bars, wherebyeach sidebar end is rigidly held by compression between the outwardly-bent metal and the corresponding shoulder.

This

2. The combination with the transverselyperforated center blocks, of the laterally-perforated tubular rivets tting the perforations in the blocks and having shoulders formed at each side of the block by diminishing the end portions of the rivets, the perforated side bars fitting over said end portions and resting `against said shoulders, respectively, and absorbent material filling the interior of the rivets; said rivets having the metal of their projecting ends bent outward in all directions upon the surrounding side bar surfaces, whereby the side bars are rigidly held by conipression between said outwardly-bent metal and the corresponding shoulders.

3. The combination with center blocks, of pairs of side bars overlapping the same, laterally perforated, tubular rivets passing through the overlapped portions, and absorbent material filling the interior of the rivets, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE lV. JIADLEY.

Vitnesses ALBERT PERKINS, CHAs. C. CANDY. 

